Buy to let loans boost challenger bank profit

Andy Golding: ‘super-annoyed’ about the chancellor’s budgetRichard Pohle/The Times

The first British bank to float since the financial crisis has doubled its shareholders’ money in just over a year after posting surging profits from buy-to-let mortgages.

Shares in OneSavings Bank, an institution created out of the former Kent Reliance Building Society, leapt by 45p to 363p yesterday on the announcement of a 60 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £47.6 million for the six months to June. The bank was floated at 170p amid adverse investor sentiment in June last year. OneSavings was priced at the bottom of its indicative range after a number of flotation flops including Saga, the insurance group.